The 2024 ESA Distinguished Lecture will feature Dr. Orlagh Creevey talking about Hidden Gems in the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram.

Dr. Creevey is an astrophysicist at the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, in Nice, France. She is at the forefront of the latest research in stellar astrophysics, particularly via her leadership of one of the major units that is responsible for the analysis and characterization of data from ESA’s Gaia mission. Prior to her current appointment, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (France), the Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (Spain) where she exploited the CoRoT and Kepler data for asteroseismic studies and used interferometric facilities to measure fundamental parameters of sun-like stars.

Dr. Creevey’s main research interests are understanding the inner workings of stars, their role in shaping planetary systems, and their place in the Milky Way galaxy, through the exploitation of both ground- and space-based data including Gaia. 

Title: Hidden Gems in the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
Abstract: ESA’s Gaia mission is well known for its pioneering work in high precision astrometry, providing positions and proper motions for around two billion stars. On board Gaia, two other instruments are fundamental for the full dynamical characterization of the sources that are measured; the low resolution BP/RP prisms and the high resolution Radial Velocity Spectrograph (RVS).  When combined together, they allow the kinematic, physical and chemical characterization of populations of stars across the Milky Way Galaxy. Gaia Data Release 3 took place in June 2022. For the first time ever, astrophysical and chemical characterization of hundreds of millions of sources became available as a public catalogue derived uniquely from the Gaia data. In this talk I will describe the work behind producing this catalogue and give an overview of its contents. I will then showcase a few applications of the catalogue in the domain of exoplanets, the physics of stars, and the Milky Way galaxy.

The ESA Office established the ESA Distinguished Lecture Series in 2021. The series aims to showcase the science from ESA missions, recognize talented early-career European astronomers, and foster collaborations in the broader international community. Each lecture will feature an in-person visit at STScI, where the Distinguished Lecturer will have the opportunity to meet with staff, students, and postdocs. The lecture will be held at STScI in the Bahcall Auditorium.